Public-Key Cryptography

Public-Key Cryptography
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Public-Key Cryptography
The internet has made information accessible to everyone who has a computer and network connection regardless of the existing geographical boundaries or time differences. Easily accessible information has come along with risks including a high risk of valuable information being lost, stolen, changed or misused. Using cryptography helps in protecting information, making it a standardized part of any infrastructure. However, this has not eliminated all the security threats, but to a greater extent, computer security has been improved since its establishment in 1960 (Whitfield, 2008). Cryptography is an important aspect of the current computer operations. This paper describes the importance of public-key cryptography, one of the advanced technologies used for security, comparing its advantages and disadvantages when solving security issues through technology.
Public-key cryptography is a technique used to protect information by encrypting it in a way that those with the key can decrypt the message into text. The technique uses public and private key to ensure data is secure. The sender uses the recipient’s public key to encrypt the message; to decrypt the message the recipient uses the private key. In the current world, the internet is becoming common, increasing the need for electronic security (Ellison & Schneier, 2000). Cryptography is one of the techniques used to protect email messages, credit card information and other important corporates’ and governments’ data (Ellison & Schneier, 2000).
Compared to the last 50 years, computer security using advanced technology has made great progress. Computer security in the 20th century, initiated networking systems that necessitated the role of cryptography (Wang, 2002). In 1970, the public-key cryptography came with major improvements as it eliminated most need to transport secret keys, as digital signatures were developed. This has improved key management with digital signatures. International businesses greatly improved especially at the beginning of 1990 (Wang, 2002). Solving security using technology helps identify potential threats and vulnerabilities. Security personnel are able to follow the trends of attack to determine the patterns of attack whether isolated or systematic. This helps in planning strategically by mitigating similar attacks in future .In addition a consolidated portal provides several classification platforms that serve as the central storage area, a central system ease coordination and also meet the needs of various stakeholders
However, using computer to solve security faces several challenges including computers being subjected to attacks by viruses and other unscrupulous programs making the system not safe ...